My Loncon 3 Schedule

July 24, 2014

I’ll be attending this year’s Worldcon in London, Loncon 3. If you happen to see me, say hi!

All my scheduled events are on the Friday, which has the advantage of making the rest of my convention fairly laid back. In addition to the panels, I plan to pop into the SFWA reception and I’ll be attending the Hugo Award ceremony.

Panel: The Pleasures of a Good, Long Info-Dump

Friday 11:00 – 12:00, Capital Suite 7+12 (ExCeL)

Arguably, the literature of ideas is not SF but the one emerging from the recent deluge of speculative nonfictional works. If we want to read about interesting ideas on the future of war, we don’t turn to SF with its rather pathetic, microwaved dystopic visions. We’re better off with books like John Mueller’s Capitalism, Democracy and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery or Max van Crevald’s Art of War. These are extended info dumps, in which the traditional problems of SF – weak characterization, plot centricity etc – have been eliminated. They don’t describe probable, moral or desirable futures, but remain densely speculative in a way most modern SF simply isn’t. Is it time to get rid of fiction from science fiction and focus on what its geeky readers have always enjoyed, the ideas part — the Info dump?

Is posthumanism really as straight, white and Western as it often seems? How can science fiction talk about post-body identities without diminishing or dismissing embodied identity and experience? This panel will discuss the stories out there that complicate the uploaded experience.

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Andersson Dexter: Book Four

After settling into a new job, new home and new living arrangements, Andersson Dexter has finally found a comfortable life in both the physical and virtual worlds. But that sense of security is blown apart when an explosion rocks Dex’s real-life Nice neighbourhood.

He and his colleagues begin an investigation into a string of seemingly senseless and random vandalism attacks, that remind them all of similar assaults in the simulated world Marionette City. While at first the attacks seem more like a nuisance than a threat, Dex discovers that there are more serious — even fatal — consequences.

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